Sure, I see the scientific prowess, I can even sort of appreciate it... But am I the only one to find it disturbing, to say the least, that we reprogram other animals to suit our needs rather than adapt our ways of life or ourselves ?
I don't know who the law works in your country but in mine, when I buy a good, I own it. I'm not leasing it, I'm not loaning or renting it, I'm buying it.
That the company offering a service to go with said good is using a imaginative way to finance its low sal price is not relevant. And anyway, given the fact one pays around 6€ a month to pay back the phone subsidy, one still very much pays for the phone. It's just stretched out over a longer period of time, making most people believe they are getting it cheap.
And for anyone still interested, the OSX comment was a/ a jab at the fact that actually, lots of people are perfectly content with a computer that will not let you do what you want with it, eg: upcoming Apple Macs that will stop you from installing anything that doesn't come from the App Store, and b/ a reference as properly pointed out by Linker3000.
Given how much money he has, and how everytime a story about Diaspora comes up someone mentions the fact that Zuckerberg gave them money, I'd say it was a very wise investment PR wise.
And with an amazing coverage-to-spent-money ratio.
Small thing: many people don't even type in the domain name in full, with the TLD.
A *lot* of people type in “facebook” to go to facebook.com, or even “facebook login” to login to facebook, completely unaware of the magic that happens behind the scenes. Do you remember what happened on that ReadWriteWeb article about Facebook's new login page ? The comments are unbelievable and yet. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php
Also, this is why Google knows that bit more about what sites people visit. Everytime people don't enter the TLD, their browser does a swift “I'm feeling lucky” search and takes them to the result.
So the.com vs.co problem might not be that much of an issue these days.
If the stuff in space is from the seventies, this means it's not running Free and Open Source Software !
Proprietary alert, space stuff doesn't run Linux!
your-own-domain.tld ?
That's what I like about having my own domain, being able to direct it to whatever I want, and not depending on some other entity that can change the services I'm using whenever they want to.
That and tinkering with all the possibilities a domain + a box plugged to the Internet offers, obviously.:)
Sometimes I wonder why it isn't possible to declare/register a PGP public key as official, and use that to authentify oneself.
I mean, with that even email can be secure.
Oh well, too complicated for the "general public" I guess, I mean keeping a spare of your (digital) key? That's far too complicated!
I was reading through an animal rights related newsletter, and Gmail's contextual advertisement located at the top of the screen thought it matched pretty well this offer for a second hand pig slaughter machine. Up to 45 pigs an hour!
Could you give some source to the Vatican's sealed documentation existence and the fact that they open it upon the victim reachinh adulthood? I'm interested.
I have a Vaio and Sony basically don't care about respecting ACPI standards... That lead to an annoying and long-lasting screen backlight problem.
So devs have to guess and reimplement quirks that were designed for Windows while all along everything should just be following standards.
Anyway, the http://www.lesswatts.org/ site has interesting things about reducing power usage on linux, including PowerTop which will tell you what is using up most cycles/power on your box.
Reading the comments I got the feeling I was reading a 9 months old article, I actually went to check the date on comments a few times.
Might I remind you that Android handsets have been released around the world, not only in the USA.
In France for instance, the HTCMagic (the G2 I believe) had advertisement in the metro and was labeled as a Google Phone (it's the Android name that doesn't pushed get out there, not the Google name). In Australia there are also ads for the same phone in phone shops. Also, they are about 4 phones available right now running android (HTCDream, Magic, Hero and Samsung Galaxy). Always going back to the T Mobile G1 is a little backwards looking and sort of like complaining about how the iPhone 1 doesn't have 3G.
The HTC Hero has an entirely revamped UI for instance, so things are also evolving outside the hood as well as under (even if the Hero's hardware admittedly isn't good enough and not future-proof).
So although I agree that Android lacks a killer app and the I want one factor that the iPhone has, saying that Android has problems because T Mobile's network sucks is really USA-centric. From the different reports we've seen, the Magic has sold a million units since it was released in May. Now we're nowhere near iPhone numbers, but it isn't exactly a failure commercially speaking.
Considering another 15 or so phones running Android should come out before the end of the year (probably quite a few Samsungs, at least one Sony-Ericsson and some more HTCs), Android is gearing up.
I'm not saying it doesn't need a whole lot more marketing, a lot more see how easy it is to do this on Android type ads on TV to explain to non tech-savvy people why it's good, better form factors and gadget lust or some unified branding to avoid having a same phone have 5 different names, but it's nowhere near the catastrophe some seem to see it as. As someone said, it's going to gain momentum slowly, not become the next big thing overnight.
There is a fundamental difference here that nobody seems to notice: hardware is a good, software is a service. If software were sold as a good, one would be buying the code itself, not a licence to use the software which is what one buys right now.
The car analogy is only correct if you corsider the hardware as the car and the OSas the insurance. Sure, you need an insurance to be able to drive the car, but you can choose whatever insurance you want.
What french law prohibits is tying the sale of a service with the sale of a good, which is the case when you force someone to subscribe to insurance A rather than insurance B, and which is the case when you force the user to use OS A rather than OSB.
The DGCCRF (Direction générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des fraudes, the body that regulates consumer related issues) has previously stated that the current situation of tieds OSsales is illegal and was only tolerated as it served the interest of the consumer who, for most of them, needed a computer sold in a state of immediate useability.As the general public has become more educated, this practice must be questionned and should no longer be tolerated as it has always been illegal.
On the other hand, the minister the DGCCRF depends of said recently that even though the practice IS illegal, nothing will be done (at a large level). Which shows that there is a very strong lobby at work behind this issue.
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Sure, I see the scientific prowess, I can even sort of appreciate it... But am I the only one to find it disturbing, to say the least, that we reprogram other animals to suit our needs rather than adapt our ways of life or ourselves ?
I don't know who the law works in your country but in mine, when I buy a good, I own it.
I'm not leasing it, I'm not loaning or renting it, I'm buying it.
That the company offering a service to go with said good is using a imaginative way to finance its low sal price is not relevant.
And anyway, given the fact one pays around 6€ a month to pay back the phone subsidy, one still very much pays for the phone. It's just stretched out over a longer period of time, making most people believe they are getting it cheap.
And for anyone still interested, the OSX comment was a/ a jab at the fact that actually, lots of people are perfectly content with a computer that will not let you do what you want with it, eg: upcoming Apple Macs that will stop you from installing anything that doesn't come from the App Store, and b/ a reference as properly pointed out by Linker3000.
Sorry, but we shouldn't have to fight teeth and nails to get proper access to devices we buy and own.
Being locked out of our own legally purchased devices is NOT normal.
Kind of like buying a computer and not being able to do what you want with it.
Wait, what is this OSX upgrade you tell me about? Sounds great, and only 29.99!
Can I pay in Bitcoins?
Actually, I'd give to a Kickstarter project, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Wait, does Kickstarter work outside the USA?
Mod. This. Up.
Just what we need, new ways of killing.
It adds a new meaning to the saying “killing for convenience”.
Or you could use the great Lazarus Firefox extension.
It changed my life. (kinda)
Given how much money he has, and how everytime a story about Diaspora comes up someone mentions the fact that Zuckerberg gave them money, I'd say it was a very wise investment PR wise.
And with an amazing coverage-to-spent-money ratio.
Small thing: many people don't even type in the domain name in full, with the TLD.
A *lot* of people type in “facebook” to go to facebook.com, or even “facebook login” to login to facebook, completely unaware of the magic that happens behind the scenes.
Do you remember what happened on that ReadWriteWeb article about Facebook's new login page ? The comments are unbelievable and yet. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_your_one_true_login.php
Also, this is why Google knows that bit more about what sites people visit. Everytime people don't enter the TLD, their browser does a swift “I'm feeling lucky” search and takes them to the result.
So the .com vs .co problem might not be that much of an issue these days.
Basically, you want ReactOS? And you want it to work.
If the stuff in space is from the seventies, this means it's not running Free and Open Source Software ! Proprietary alert, space stuff doesn't run Linux!
your-own-domain.tld ? That's what I like about having my own domain, being able to direct it to whatever I want, and not depending on some other entity that can change the services I'm using whenever they want to. That and tinkering with all the possibilities a domain + a box plugged to the Internet offers, obviously. :)
If you want to say fuck, say fuck.
Bowlderisation isn't exactly a healthy value.
Aren't those miracles?
This is /. aren't you supposed to say "What a surprise, .NET has flaws!" ?
Sometimes I wonder why it isn't possible to declare/register a PGP public key as official, and use that to authentify oneself. I mean, with that even email can be secure. Oh well, too complicated for the "general public" I guess, I mean keeping a spare of your (digital) key? That's far too complicated!
Similar thing happened to me.
I was reading through an animal rights related newsletter, and Gmail's contextual advertisement located at the top of the screen thought it matched pretty well this offer for a second hand pig slaughter machine.
Up to 45 pigs an hour!
Nice.
True too. Oh well, I guess that attempt at humour failed. Still, I thought the causal loop was pretty funny.
And a littlebrother one, things from that book pop up in real life every other week it seems.
Disclaimer: I'm vegetarian.
Could you give some source to the Vatican's sealed documentation existence and the fact that they open it upon the victim reachinh adulthood? I'm interested.
Mod parent up, this is very true.
I have a Vaio and Sony basically don't care about respecting ACPI standards... That lead to an annoying and long-lasting screen backlight problem.
So devs have to guess and reimplement quirks that were designed for Windows while all along everything should just be following standards.
Anyway, the http://www.lesswatts.org/ site has interesting things about reducing power usage on linux, including PowerTop which will tell you what is using up most cycles/power on your box.
The title was supposed to be Android [not equal] T Mobile.
Also, my french quotes were stripped.
What's up with "unusual" characters Slashdot ?
Reading the comments I got the feeling I was reading a 9 months old article, I actually went to check the date on comments a few times.
Might I remind you that Android handsets have been released around the world, not only in the USA.
In France for instance, the HTCMagic (the G2 I believe) had advertisement in the metro and was labeled as a Google Phone (it's the Android name that doesn't pushed get out there, not the Google name). In Australia there are also ads for the same phone in phone shops.
Also, they are about 4 phones available right now running android (HTCDream, Magic, Hero and Samsung Galaxy).
Always going back to the T Mobile G1 is a little backwards looking and sort of like complaining about how the iPhone 1 doesn't have 3G.
The HTC Hero has an entirely revamped UI for instance, so things are also evolving outside the hood as well as under (even if the Hero's hardware admittedly isn't good enough and not future-proof).
So although I agree that Android lacks a killer app and the I want one factor that the iPhone has, saying that Android has problems because T Mobile's network sucks is really USA-centric.
From the different reports we've seen, the Magic has sold a million units since it was released in May. Now we're nowhere near iPhone numbers, but it isn't exactly a failure commercially speaking.
Considering another 15 or so phones running Android should come out before the end of the year (probably quite a few Samsungs, at least one Sony-Ericsson and some more HTCs), Android is gearing up.
I'm not saying it doesn't need a whole lot more marketing, a lot more see how easy it is to do this on Android type ads on TV to explain to non tech-savvy people why it's good, better form factors and gadget lust or some unified branding to avoid having a same phone have 5 different names, but it's nowhere near the catastrophe some seem to see it as. As someone said, it's going to gain momentum slowly, not become the next big thing overnight.
There is a fundamental difference here that nobody seems to notice:
hardware is a good, software is a service.
If software were sold as a good, one would be buying the code itself, not a licence to use the software which is what one buys right now.
The car analogy is only correct if you corsider the hardware as the car and the OSas the insurance. Sure, you need an insurance to be able to drive the car, but you can choose whatever insurance you want.
What french law prohibits is tying the sale of a service with the sale of a good, which is the case when you force someone to subscribe to insurance A rather than insurance B, and which is the case when you force the user to use OS A rather than OSB.
The DGCCRF (Direction générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des fraudes, the body that regulates consumer related issues) has previously stated that the current situation of tieds OSsales is illegal and was only tolerated as it served the interest of the consumer who, for most of them, needed a computer sold in a state of immediate useability.As the general public has become more educated, this practice must be questionned and should no longer be tolerated as it has always been illegal.
On the other hand, the minister the DGCCRF depends of said recently that even though the practice IS illegal, nothing will be done (at a large level). Which shows that there is a very strong lobby at work behind this issue.